The Bayou City Soul Project is all about the music of Houston. Throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s Houston, Texas nurtured the development of their own brand of soul music. The amount of soul music produced in Houston is nothing short of staggering. While the deep history of Houston’s blues and jazz has been a well documented subject, the story behind Archie Bell’s “Tighten Up” and thousands of other soul songs like it, have never been told.

The Bayou City Soul Project will tell the story of Houston soul music. The scope of the project will include an audio documentary that includes oral first person narratives, sound clips and a historical narration.

In addition, it will put together a sock-hop in a historically relevant venue that will bring the community in to hear the sounds of Houston soul, be able to listen to the audio documentary, and also view an exhibition of photographs and music ephemera.

The Bayou City Soul Project seeks to enlighten people who are not aware of Houston’s rich history of soul and document the artists and their stories before they are lost forever.

We will use this blog to keep you up to date on the progress of the project as well as ongoing music events and news.

The Bayou City Soul Project won a 2010 grant from the Idea Fund. An innovative re-granting program for Texas-based artists, administered through Aurora Picture Show, DiverseWorks Artspace and Project Row Houses, and funded by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. This has helped get the wheels turning but we’re still looking for donations and sponsors to make this project to document our history a reality.

We are seeking out any pieces that could be considered part of Houston music history (examples would be pictures, concert posters, vinyl records, sheet music or anything else relevant) to document and musicians to tell us their stories. If you think you have something to contribute please drop us a line. bkoshkin@gmail.com